10 players primed to break out during the NBA playoffs

The NBA regular season is less than a week away from ending, and with that, 16 teams will enter the postseason and battle it out for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Unlike other sports, however, there are usually very few surprises or upsets in the NBA playoffs. Typically speaking, the favorites win out, and the best two teams in each conference face each other in the NBA Finals.

That being said, there are always a few individual players who manage to have an impact for their teams in the playoffs that they didn’t have in the regular season. So with that in mind, here are 10 NBA players who could break out this postseason.

1) Kyrie Irving

This has not been a season Kyrie Irving wants you to remember. The Cleveland point guard is averaging less than 20 points per game for the first time since his rookie season, is averaging a career low in assists and is shooting a porous 31 percent from beyond the arc.

To be fair to Irving, he is coming off of major knee surgery, and a lack of coaching stability within the Cavs organization hasn’t helped matters either. Still, the 24-year-old is far too talented to continue what you would consider by his standards to be below-average play.

In 13 playoff games last year, Irving shot an amazing 45 percent from three and only turned the ball over 1.5 times per night. With a bizarre regular season coming the end for the Cavs, expect the familiarity of postseason basketball to rejuvenate Irving and for him to be excellent in the playoffs for Cleveland.

Kevin Love, however, might be another story.

2) Blake Griffin

Lost amid the Clippers' 2015 postseason collapse was the fact Blake Griffin was playing the best basketball of his life. In 14 playoff games last year, Griffin put the following stat line: 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists, one block and one steal per game. If success in the postseason depends on your best players playing at their best, no one did it better last year than Griffin.

Granted, the 2015-16 NBA season has been a difficult one for the L.A. star. Griffin has played just 33 games this season, sidelined by a quad injury and broken hand. That being said, head coach Doc Rivers and certainly Griffin himself haven’t forgotten his high level of play last postseason. With an immense amount of pressure on the Clippers to finally get past the second round of the playoffs, expect Griffin to be at his best once again when the regular season comes to an end.

3) Marcus Smart

While analytics and the three-point revolution have changed the NBA landscape, the necessity of quality defense in the playoffs hasn’t changed. With that in mind, expect Celtics guard Marcus Smart to play a large role in the coming weeks for Boston.

Smart, the sixth overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft, hasn’t been able to find the scoring touch early in his NBA career, but the 22-year-old is already a capable perimeter defender. The Celtics are one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, and head coach Brad Stevens will likely want to play to his team's strengths in the postseason. Expect a heavy dose of Marcus Smart at both shooting guard and small forward in the playoffs for the Celtics.

4) Andre Iguodala

One of the most overlooked aspects of the Golden State Warriors' chase for 73 wins has been the fact that they have been doing it without a healthy Andre Iguodala for significant stretches. Iguodala, the 2015 NBA Finals MVP, has been hampered by knee and ankle injuries this season but finally appears to be back to full strength. As if the Warriors weren’t already good enough, having a healthy Iggy means Steve Kerr can unleash the small ball lineup terrorized the Cavs in the last year’s NBA Finals.

The 32-year-old Iguodala has averaged career lows in minutes and points per game this season. Expect those number to rise dramatically once the playoffs commence.

5) DeMarre Carroll

The Toronto Raptors signed small forward DeMarre Carroll this past offseason with the intent that he would guard opposing teams' best perimeter players. Unfortunately, a knee injury has limited Carroll to just 24 games this season, but the Raptors have still managed the land the second overall seed in the East despite his absence.

Carroll is expected to be ready and back in the lineup as soon as the playoffs begin, and having the 29-year-old back on the court should pay immediate dividends for Dwane Casey’s team. Having a defender and quality three-point shooter like Carroll on the court in the playoffs will not only help take some pressure off the shoulders of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, but also add another dimension to both sides of the floor that opposing coaches will need to game plan for.

6) Danny Green

After a breakout season last year, Spurs swingman Danny Green has struggled this go-round. The 28-year-old is averaging just 7.3 points a night on 37.7 percent shooting this season, after averaging 11.7 points on 43.6 percent shooting in the 2014-15 campaign.

Still, with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Many Ginobili all at an advanced basketball age, head coach Gregg Popovich has no choice but to roll the dice on Green and give him significant playing time in the postseason. Green is a career 43 percent three-point shooter in the playoffs, and having played 69 career games in the postseason, he has almost of full season of playoff basketball experience under his belt. It’s championship or bust for the Spurs, and a player like Green turning his season around in the coming weeks could be the difference for San Antonio.

7)  Josh Richardson

Although most NBA fans thought lottery-pick rookie Justise Winslow would be a major factor for the Miami Heat this season, instead, second-round pick Josh Richardson has been head coach Erik Spoelstra’s most relied upon youngster.

Richardson is a lengthy six-foot-six shooting guard who has only earned more minutes as the season has progressed. Since the beginning of March, the rookie has averaged nearly 30 minutes per game for the Heat. Oh, and the fact that he is shooting nearly 60 percent from beyond the arc during that time span just might be worth noting. The Heat know it has found something in Richardson, and the basketball world will come to know the same in the playoffs.

8) Rodney Hood

The Utah Jazz is on the cusp of making the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Although stars Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors tend to grab the headlines, second-year shooting guard Rodney Hood should be the focus of attention for this Jazz team. Hood is the best shooter in the state of Utah at the moment and has only gotten better and better as the season has progressed.

The 23-year-old is capable of scoring in bunches, evident by the fact he hit eight three-pointers in one half just a few weeks ago. Now receiving well over 30 minutes of playing time per game from head coach Quin Snyder, expect Hood to make a name for himself this postseason.

9) Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has quietly become head coach Stan Van Gundy’s most trusted player out in Detroit. KCP leads the Pistons in minutes per game (that’s right, ahead of both Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson) and constantly puts pressure on opposing defenses by attacking the basket.

The eighth overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft, KCP appears to have finally found his footing in the NBA, as he is averaging career numbers this season. Granted, his three-point shooting is down this year, but Caldwell-Pope is also a capable defender, and that alone will likely keep him on the court even when his shot isn’t falling. That being said, if KCP does have his shot working from field this postseason, then the third-year player out of Georgia will garner some major attention.

10) Allen Crabbe

We all know what Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are capable of out in Portland, but the void left by the offseason departure of small forward Nicolas Batum is still being felt. The Trail Blazers signed Al-Farouq Aminu to replace Batum, but his play has been mediocre at best. With the playoffs about to begin, head coach Terry Stotts would be wise to give third-year player Allen Crabbe the lion's share of playing time at small forward.

Considering that Aminu is a better overall defender than Crabbe, it would be a bit of gamble, but Crabbe's upside alone almost necessitates that Stotts takes a calculated gamble with him. The third-year player out of California is a much better three-point shooter and overall offensive threat than Aminu, all while turning the basketball over at a lower rate than his teammate. Also, at six-foot-six with long arms, it’s not like Crabbe is going to constantly get picked on one-on-one on defense.

The Trail Blazers are a team that needs to take some risks if they hope to advance past the first round; giving Crabbe the majority of playing time at small forward would be a good bet to make.